


Acting On Your Best Behavior

by henclair



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 80s Fashion, Arcades, Era Appropriate Jams, Other, Slice of Life, Steve and Eleven are trashy 80s friends, no weird romance here, steve & eleven are platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2017-10-18
Packaged: 2019-01-18 22:59:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12398010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/henclair/pseuds/henclair
Summary: Steve Harrington skips school and runs into someone at the arcade.





	Acting On Your Best Behavior

“Oh fuck this.” Steve said, turning around when he saw the two people he absolutely did not want to talk to standing right outside school.

“Yeah that’s right Steve, run the fuck away!” Tommy yelled at his retreating figure and Steve rolled his eyes, his studies were seriously going downhill because of the two assholes he used to call his friends.

While walking to his car, he made eye contact with Nancy who was walking with Jonathan. She raised her eyebrows quizzically and he just shrugged, letting his girlfriend and boyfriend walk into school without him. The two didn’t question his actions anymore, they had basically fallen into domesticity.

Steve hit the steering wheel of his car in frustration and sped out of the school’s parking lot, heading down towards to arcade where he knew he could find some cheap gum and even cheaper music.

Popping his trunk, steve grabbed his jacket, popping the collar like he always did. He sauntered over to the prize desk of the arcade and when the girl at the counter turned away to speak to a kid, he pocketed a few packets of gum. 

Walking to the back, he saw the kid the girl at the counter had been talking to walk over to him glaring. She growled, and all of a sudden the gum Steve had in his pockets flew out and over towards her.

“Holy shit.” He said, backing up against the wall and staring down at the kid. Was this the one Nancy mentioned? Thirteen or some shit like that? In any case she had startled him bad.

“Don’t steal things.” She said, her nose starting to bleed as the gum flew back to the counter and dropped into it’s correct place, the girl at the counter not noticing. “Nancy wouldn’t like it.” She said and honestly, Steve didn’t actually think Nancy would mind but since the little girl who caused a rift that let a fucking demon to come and steal his boyfriend’s little brother had him backed up against a wall he kept his mouth shut.

“Ok. Ok. Next time I’ll pay, jesus.” He let himself move slightly away from the wall, the girl wiping her nose and resuming her glaring. “Kid you scared the hell outta me.” She just smiled a bit at that statement and so Steve decided to press his luck.

“You’re the number kid right? The one Nance’s little brother has the hots for or something?” She nodded.

“Eleven.” She said, her eyes softening.

“Right Eleven.” He said, sticking his hands back in his pockets and starting to walk off. “I’ll see ya kid.” He left it at that, feeling all to shaken by the girl with less social skills than Jonathan.

Steve walked over to the jukebox in the corner. God this place was so old fashioned, at least they had modern tunes thank the higher power or whatever. He popped a few quarters in, flipping through the pages and pages of songs until he found what he was looking for. 

Tommy always said Tears For Fears was for queers but Steve supposed he was technically one now, or at least his boyfriend was. 

He turned around, to find some game to play or something to steal, no a little girl didn’t scare him off from stealing, but instead saw Eleven.

Her eyes were closed and her head was bopping slightly to the tune, her hands unclenched and the big blue jacket was falling off her shoulders. Steve smiled in confusion, the girl was just so odd. 

“You like this song?” He asked, and her eyes snapped open, looking like a scared cat and he saw the little hands clench into fists. Steve frowned.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to scare you, I just wanted to know if you liked this song. It’s one of my favorites.” He said, moving slightly closer to Eleven who watched him calculatingly.

“I like it.” She said simply, nodding and Steve nodded back.

“Like any other songs? I got a few quarters and you could play em if you like.” She smiled a small smile and nodded. Eleven walked over to the jukebox, still playing the song, and she started flipping through the pages. Eventually the girl pointed to a song, and Steve looked over her shoulder at the song.

“Heartbreaker? Pat Benatar?” He asked surprised, an odd song choice but nonetheless a good song. “Alright, I’ll load her up.” He put in another quarter and made the selection for her. Eleven stepped back and smiled at Steve, who smiled back.

The girl was pretty cool.

“So what do you say we play something huh? Nance and Johnny boy never come here with me so I have to resort to plain on my own.” He walked over to one of the games, leaning on the side and giving a winning smile. “So what do you say Eleven?”

No hesitation, Eleven walked over to be next to Steve, looking determinedly at the screen. He pumped his fist and smiled, not even Nancy’s little brother, young Wheeler 1, would play with him. Something about the social norms dealing with older teens.  
“I’ll win.” She said simply, startling Steve a Eleven turned her head and smiled at the boy, more of a smirk if he was thinking about it.

“Oh come on, a little girl like you? Please.” He took the other position on the game and nudged her a bit, putting on a smirk of his own.

Two hours and another roll of quarters later, Eleven had indeed won. But so had Steve in a sense, since the girl let him pick out prizes. They walked out of the arcade, Eleven now sporting new bright yellow heart shaped sunglasses and even brighter jelly bracelets decorating her arms. Steve himself had only gotten the packets of gum that he snatched earlier, this time paying for them under Eleven’s gaze.

“That was fun kid. I’ll give you that. And your music taste ain't half bad.” Eleven just beamed at Steve’s comment. “Maybe if I skip again we can hang out.” 

“Skip?” She asked. 

“Yeah, like skip school.” He elaborated, sighing and explaining more when Eleven still looked confused at his words. “When I don’t go to school.” 

“Oh.” She said, stopping with him at his car. Steve looked at the girl.

“Need a ride? We can bop some more even, got a fresh cassette deck but not too much music.” He said, opening the door to the driver's side and getting in, motioning to the other side of the car. Eleven just grinned again, running around and opening the door, sitting down with a plop.

Together they cruised out of the parking lot and down the road in the little town of Hawkins. Steve popped in some tunes and opened the windows, his hair ruffling and Eleven’s new bracelets making some soft noises.

He looked over to see the girl with her head out the window, sunglasses folded carefully on her seat. She turned towards him and smiled, saying something that Steve interpreted as ‘Thank you’ over the sound of the music and the wind.

“Nah, thank you kid.” He said, looking back to the road and cranking the stereo.

**Author's Note:**

> they r best friends and steve is like a brother to eleven,,  
> tumblr @floralconversesations  
> kudos and comments make me happy


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